Bihar gains little in railway budget

PATNA: Unlike past six to seven years, Bihar has got lesser number of new trains, seven to be precise, and virtually no major rail projects in the railway budget presented by railway minister Dinesh Trivedi. In 2010, Bihar had got 10 new trains, while in 2009 it got 12 new trains. Bihar had got seven new trains in 2011 during former railway minister Mamata Banerjee' tenure.
The new trains given to Bihar are mostly weekly or bi-weekly, which would not cater to the needs of passengers much. These trains are Chhapra-Maduadih Intercity daily, Secunderabad-Darbhanga Express (bi-weekly), Howrah-Raxaul passenger (bi-weekly), Patna-Bilaspur Express (weekly), Kolkata-Jayanagar Express (weekly), Chhapra-Lucknow Express (triweekly) and Darbhanga-Ajmer Express (weekly).
The run of seven passenger trains has been extended in the proposed budget. Maduadih-Bapudham-Motihari has been extended up to Muzaffarpur, Patna-Dehri-on-Sone up to Bhabhua Road, Valsad-Sonepur up to Muzaffarpur, Surat-Varanasi up to Chhapra, Patna-Mathura up to Kota, and Kolkata-Darbhanga up to Sitamarhi. A new passenger train between Gorakhpur and Siwan has also been announced in the rail budget.
Several pairs of new trains would pass through Bihar, which include Kamakhya-Lokmanya Tilak, Howrah- New Jalpaiguri, Dibrugarh-Kolkata and Anand Vihar (Delhi)-Haldia. Doubling of tracks, gauge conversion and electrification projects also figure in the rail budget. The budget also announced survey work for track doubling, including Muzaffarpur-Motihari, Narkatiaganj-Gorakhpur, Darbhanga-Samastipur and Chhapra-Balia-Mao-Azamgarh routes.
Besides, the budget has proposed survey work for the electrification of Bhagalpur-Mandar Hill route. However, the budget did not propose electrification of the Bakhtiarpur-Rajgir section under Danapur division of East Central Railway (ECR), an important section as railways intends to run coal-laden goods trains from Tilaiya to fulfil the needs of Barh super thermal power station in future.
The railway minister has proposed to develop 84 'Adarsh stations'. Of them, about 13 stations fall under ECR. These stations include Begusarai, Forbesganj, Gorahsarai, Janakpur Road, Ziradei, Jogbani, Kharik, Lal Gopalpur, Nawada, Simraha, Supaul, Thakurganj and Warsaliganj.
However, the rail budget remained silent on fund allocation to various ongoing railway projects in Bihar. It also remained silent on the demand for a third line between Ara and Fatuha on the mainline section of Danapur division to cope with huge traffic rush.
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